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The Concept of Protestantism The Protestant movement wanted to rescue Christianity from the clergy and the Church hierarchy - Christians must save religion from the pope We Muslims do not need mediators between us and God We do not need mediators to understand Gods holy books The Prophet Jesus spoke to the people directly We dont need to go to the clergy each person is his own clergy Shariati maintained that all the religious messages offered by formal and traditional religious organizations were antiquated and that any protest against these traditional religious organizations was regarded by the clerics as a protest against Islam itself Core Islam and Traditional Islam Part of Dr Shariatis work was to separate what he called core Islam from what he called traditional Islam Many additions were added to Islams core but they were not part of the core they were merely historical additions It must be kept in mind that 70 or 80 years ago the Shiite Muslim clergy was opposed to eliminating public bathhouses where one could immerse oneself in large containers of water and replacing them with showers and modern bathing facilities But of course they have made some concessions to modernity when it comes to their own lifestyles such as owning a car The Role of the Traditional Clerics At the time of the Constitutional Revolution 1905-1907 the Islamic clergy was opposed to modern sciences such as chemistry and physics In their eyes chemistry meant that there is no God But in todays world the clerics take what suits them If I drive a Peykan a cheap Iranian-made car they drive the latest model luxury cars audience applause Is this right They have made these concessions because they use modernity for their own benefit they taste it and then decide that it isnt such a bad thing smiles in the audience Seventy or 80 years ago they opposed these

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